Herd Tasks: Your weekly farming checklist
Continue to allocate quality grass to the most productive stock, advises Brian Reidy.
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- Continue to allocate quality grass to the most productive stock.
- Consider pre-mowing where grass quality is not ideal.
- If grass is tight but you have had rain, slowly reduce the rotation length to maintain quality grass for stock.
- Reseeding or stitching should be considered in under-performing paddocks.
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- After a dry spell, when rain comes it provides the ideal conditions for parasites to hit stock. Watch for coughing and loose dungs. Faecal samples through your vet should be considered before dosing.
- Milk urea levels remain low around the country.
- Forcing/recommencing low protein supplementation is downright irresponsible at present, as it continues to have a detrimental effect on cow performance.
- Low urea means poor protein supplementation, resulting in depressed intakes, lower fats and lower yields.
- Watch for mastitis in dry autumn calvers. Keep fly control up to date.
- Dry sucklers should be allocated lower-quality grass to keep them from getting overconditioned.
- When weaning calves, keep meal feeding up for a few weeks afterwards to reduce stress — this is compulsory for anyone in the SCEP.
- Keep high-magnesium mineral licks with spring calvers.
Young calves/weanlings on grass are thriving well once they are getting a fresh pick of grass regularly. Those not being moved regularly and are being forced to graze very tightly are not performing well, as energy intakes are poor.
